Figure 2.

Relationship between BMI and insulin resistance in women with and without PCOS. Obesity and the PCOS status per se appear to be at least in part independent factors that contribute to the observed higher prevalence of insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome in women with PCOS (33, 35); with increasing BMI, women with PCOS, compared with BMI-matched non-PCOS women, appear to accrue more metabolic abnormalities, likely contributing to the frequently observed higher insulin resistance in women with the syndrome. [Modified from N. Sattar: Polycystic ovary syndrome. The metabolic syndrome, 2nd ed. (edited by C. D. Byrne and S. H. Wild), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 2011 (171), with permission.]